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NOTES
Everyone will not automatically inherit the eternal bliss of the new earth. The gift of Christ is for those who want it, take it, and keep it.
The end of the Bible gives us a peak into eternity. When the apostle John was praying on the Island of Patmos, the resurrected Jesus gave him several visions to share with the church to strengthen Christians and to keep them focused. These visions are in the book we call “Revelation,” which is the last book in our Bible and the latest book written in the biblical canon—being recorded around AD 90. One of the last visions divides humanity into two groups of people with two separate ends. Here’s Revelation 21:5–8:
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.’”
Before addressing how this relates to heaven-aimed versus new-creation Christianity, I want point three key aspects of this passage. First, John sees the glorified Jesus who calls himself the beginning and the end. Jesus will complete what he began, and the end will be exactly as he intends. His power and plan is limited by nothing other than his will and character. Second, you and I find ourselves in this passage. In fact, all humans do. We’re living in a grand story headed in a specific direction with Jesus as the writer. Some people end in the lake of fire and some drink the waters of eternal life. Third, the waters of eternal life are for those who are thirsty. Jesus invites people to freely take from him the water life. Everyone is born with a thirst only Jesus can quench—and he can quench it fully and eternally. Not everyone gets God, not everyone inherits the new earth. But the gift of God is accessible through a relationship with Jesus. It’s for those who want it, take it, and keep it.
In this passage, those who do are called conquerers. And that brings me to the topic of heaven-aimed Christianity. In one sense, some heaven-aimed Christians have the right posture by viewing this world as a place to be conquered. The world is full of hostility and temptations that must be endured and overcome in Jesus’ strength. But heaven-aimed Christianity gets it wrong by its tendency to try to fully separate and disengage from those Jesus calls faithless, immoral, murderers, salacious, and liars. There’s a sense of separation that may need to happen from time to time, but Jesus ultimately calls us to be in the world and not of the world. So the impulse of new-creation Christianity gets it right. Jesus wants his followers to engage with those who don’t follow him and to live out their new life, their new identity in Him, among them. That’s new-creation Christianity—Christians living out their transformed lives in a world longing for transformation. I’m Aaron Massey. Thanks for listening.